Unbound (Vinyl LP, Sky Blue)

Unbound opens with a single, trembling chord that rises and descends before meeting a warm, beguiling voice, a voice singing in a tradition that’s been heard in this northern river country for millennia. The music that follows is a soulful dialogue between the ancient tradition of powwow singing and a contemporary musical palette. On Unbound, the powwow style of singing is entwined with synthesized voice modulation, and hand drumming is accented with electronic samples and beats — the harmonies and resonances are equal parts cultural and musical.

Geographically, Bizhiki is almost wholly a made-in-Wisconsin project, a collaboration between Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings, Joe Rainey and the multi-instrumentalist Sean Carey (S. Carey), who for years has been a secret weapon within the Bon Iver family. Bezhikiins Jennings grew up singing within the powwow tradition, around the Lac Du Flambeau and Lac Courte Oreilles reservations in Central Wisconsin. He now makes his home in Northern Wisconsin, on the Bad River reservation on the shores of Lake Superior. He’s joined on the album by his adopted brother, Rainey, a Red Lake Ojibwe powwow singer from Minneapolis who now makes his home within his wife’s Oneida Nation on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Tracklist

1. Franklin Warrior
2. Unbound
3. Sgc
4. She’s All We Have
5. Rez News
6. Nashke!
7. Float Back By
8. Trying to Live
9. Gigawaabamin (Come Through)
10. Call Me Home
11. Medicine River